Lately my deepest concerns have been focusing and centering more and more around spiritual and ideological “splitting” of organized “good”. We talked about these concerns in the Denominationalism treatment.

In our political ideology, there should be one and only one authoritative Constitution, in clear language, by which we organize and operate our government, regardless of the opinions and directions of any “denominational” Political Parties that may come into being.

And in our religion and spiritual guidance, there should be one and only one authoritative Church teaching, in clear language, by which we organize and operate our individual and collective lives, regardless of the opinions and directions of any “denominational” religions that may come into being.

Politically, Conservative Americans always have their Constitution to fall back on. No matter how bad things get, so long as the Constitution exists, we can always find our way back to “Proper”, or Constitutional America.

Spiritually, orthodox Roman Catholics always have the Pope and the Bishops to fall back on. No matter how bad things get, as long as we have a Pope protecting the faith, we can always find our way back to “Proper”, or orthodox Roman Catholicism.
Or can we, really?

What if Denominationalism has come to exist within the Church herself, having sprung up among the clergy and Bishops, and been allowed to fester, grow and metastasize to internal Civil War proportions?

The problems America faces today may be small potatoes compared to the problems the Church faces today.

The Church appears to be tearing herself apart.

I have been praying, studying and researching on this in a background sort of way for years now, being periodically reassured by my own findings and by various Priests and other devout knowledgeable Catholics that, yes, there have been worse times in Church history, and the Church still stands. But now I’m not so sure. This looks to me to be becoming as bad as the original Arianism that threatened to destroy the Church.

It is moving in that direction.

Seeing the same impending threat, The Remnant Newspaper has actually issued a letter asking Pope Francis to either correct his teaching, or to step down. And they noted St. Catherine of Siena’s letter to Pope Gregory XI as a precedent.

With no little trepidation, being under the gaze of the One who will judge us all on the Last Day, we your subjects respectfully petition Your Holiness to change course for the good of the Church and the welfare of souls. Failing this, would it not be better for Your Holiness to renounce the Petrine office than to preside over what threatens to be a catastrophic compromise of the Church’s integrity?

In this regard we make our own the words of Saint Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church, in her famous letter to Pope Gregory XI, urging him to steer the Church aright during one of her greatest crises: “Since He has given you authority and you have assumed it, you should use your virtue and power: and if you are not willing to use it, it would be better for you to resign what you have assumed…”

Add to this the pressure of four Cardinals formally asking Pope Francis for answers to very specific Catholic questions, being studiously avoided by Pope Francis, and the possibility of them issuing a letter of Correction. (Something I never heard of.)

Potentially leading to the Pope actually being deposed. (Never heard of that either.)

Pope Francis put off or avoided meeting with these Cardinals, and thus avoided answering very pointed Catholic questions. Read about it at Catholic Questions for Pope Francis, and at Cardinals Ask Pope if he is Catholic.

Questions like “Is the Pope a Catholic?” used to be funny.

I ain’t laughing. Lately my Catholic worries have been around the wild diversity among the Parishes and Dioceses in America. But Pope Francis has brought “Denominational” schism right on into the Vatican.

We should all take to heart the last paragraph from the “Is the Pope Catholic” article.
But as always with this pontificate, the blessed silver lining is clarity. Francis Bergoglio is going to go down in history as the Great Clarifier, no matter what he says or does not say to Cardinal Burke. Although the letter was addressed to the pope, effectively the cardinals’ dubia are aimed at the entire Church; all Catholics from pope to pewsitters, must believe and profess the same Gospel. This means that the questions are aimed at all bishops as well, and however the pope decides, they are going to be obliged to make the same decision either for or against Christ. If nothing else is accomplished, it will from this time forward be very easy to clarify who is and is not a Catholic bishop.

Just as Amoris Laetitia was intended as a litmus test for compliance with the New Paradigm, so the Cardinals’ dubia provides a similar service to Christ.